A defibrillator powered by mechanical means which allows an operator to listen to an analog signal corresponding to a patient""s electrocardiogram activity.
Defibrillators are well known to those skilled in the art; see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,254 of Joseph Sullivan et al., the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.
A defibrillator is a device which treats an abnormal heart condition called fibrillation, in which the heat beats randomly; fibrillation will often cause death if not reversed within a few minutes of its occurrence. Defibrillators are devices which attempt to reverse fibrillation.
Defibrillators are generally powered either by mains and/or by batteries. This poses no substantial problem in the developed countries, such as the United States. In developing countries, however, there often is not ready access to either main power or battery power.
Even when batteries are available to power defibrillators, they invariably lose their power over time; and there is a risk that, in a life-threatening situation, a battery-powered defibrillator may not function. Consequently, the manufacturers of battery-powered defibrillators suggest that the batteries therein be checked frequently, a suggestion which is as often ignored as is followed.
Furthermore, many of the battery-powered defibrillators contain lithium batteries, which, in at least one recently reported occurrence, exploded.
It is an object of this invention to provide a defibrillator which can be operated by mechanical means and need not rely upon either mains or battery power.
It is another object of this invention to provide a defibrillator which will allow an operator to monitor a patient""s electrocardiogram and to determine when the defibrillation is necessary.
In accordance with this invention, there is provided a defibrillator which is mechanically powered and in which a direct voltage is generated and applied to a patient""s heart to stop fibrillation. The defibrillator also contains a device which senses the electrical pulses generated by the patient""s heart and converts these sensed pulses into an audio output which can be monitored by the person using the machine.